I don't remember the specifics, but that much is plausible - George himself said that ANH was only 40% in line with what he originally had in mind.
it clearly reused ideas that George Lucas had
My favorite example of this specifically is that an early treatment of ANH had a scene with Luke and co racing in Beggar's Canyon, which was cut early in production and never filmed. But George really likes racing and he got to make the scene he always wanted to be there in TPM.
The original Beggar's Canyon scene survives in the BBC Radio Play version of Star Wars!
I don't remember the specifics, but that much is plausible - George himself said that ANH was only 40% in line with what he originally had in mind.
My favorite example of this specifically is that an early treatment of ANH had a scene with Luke and co racing in Beggar's Canyon, which was cut early in production and never filmed. But George really likes racing and he got to make the scene he always wanted to be there in TPM.
The original Beggar's Canyon scene survives in the BBC Radio Play version of Star Wars!